Bus wreckage fished out of river

The search and rescue (S&R) teams of the Navy and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Thursday fished out the wreckage of one of the buses that fell into Savitri river.

Braving inclement weather, muddy waters, strong currents and crocodiles, the Navy diving team spotted two wreckage that seemed to be parts of buses.

These were spotted found approximately 170 and 200 metres from the collapsed bridge, which connects the Mahad town to Poladpur on the Mumbai-Goa highway, nearly 180 kms from downtown Mumbai.

“We have found two wreckage....this may belong to the buses...it is yet to be ascertained,” Western Naval Command spokesperson Commander Rahul Sinha said.

Later, the NDRF was informed and three cranes and two JCBs were brought in and one of the wreckage was pulled out.

The wreckage appeared to be half of a bus with the upper portion ripped off. It is not yet known whether the rest of the remains inside the water is of the same bus or part of the
other bus.

The S&R teams were unable to spot any bodies.

As many as 42 people were involved in the accident, and 26 bodies have been recovered and identified so far.

The Navy and NDRF teams are stationed there and will resume operations on Friday morning, which would be the 10th day of the incident.

The bridge had collapsed due to the Savitri river flowing with full force following heavy rain in Mahabaleshwar in Satara district.